Is Huey Lewis Really In Die Hard? The Truth Behind The Viral Debate

For lifelong cinephiles, the kinds of folks determined to experience as many movies as the medium has to offer before they hit the soil, revisits are an extravagance. Sometimes, they’re essential. Jean-Luc Godard’s films are dense with ideas and, especially later in his career, visual information. You leave the first viewing with merely an impression of what he’s saying, but the meat of his thesis doesn’t completely shake out until a second or perhaps third go-round. (If that sounds more like work than pleasure, well, sometimes it is.) Meanwhile, a film like “Memento,” with its fractured narrative told from the perspective of an amnesiac, might not make total sense until you retrace Leonard Shelby’s journey on a subsequent watch.

And then there are movies we return to over and over because they never fail to work their rare magic. Dating back to my early childhood, I’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” more times than I could possibly count, but I book at least one return trip to Amity each year because it’s a thrilling story masterfully told. I also savor the little bits of character business sprinkled throughout the film. The same is true of John McTiernan’s “Die Hard,” a precision-tooled ’80s action classic stuffed with nifty twists, breathtaking set pieces, and unforgettable characters — which includes the most minor of players like Al Jeong’s candy bar thief, Rick Ducommun’s big-mouthed electrician, and, of course, the terrorist who looks an awful lot like Huey Lewis, the frontman of the popular rock band Huey Lewis and the News.

What’s that? You’re telling me that actually is Huey Lewis? If so, then why is another actor credited for the performance? Could it be an alias? Since this piece of trivia seems to come up at least once a year, let’s set the record straight once and for all.

The character of Eddie, who gets posted at Nakatomi Tower’s lobby desk to guard against any unwelcome visitors (like Sergeant Al Powell) is played by a very real character actor named Dennis Hayden. If you peruse IMDb or his Wikipedia page, you’ll see that he’s been working fairly steadily since making his acting debut as Bodyguard #1 in a 1984 episode of “Simon & Simon.” He’s appeared in numerous films, television shows, and commercials up until the late 2010s. Walter Hill and/or his casting director must’ve been a fan given that he turned up in “Another 48 Hrs.” and “Wild Bill.” Or maybe they’d been turned down by Huey Lewis and landed on Hayden as a fall-back option.

If you’re looking to catch up with Hayden’s most recent work, you’ll have to track down a 2018 short film called “Hammer Jackson.” Meanwhile, his last credited television appearance was as Dale Wilson on the ABC drama series “Mistresses” in 2013. And if you absolutely, positively won’t give up on the idea of Huey Lewis playing a terrorist in “Die Hard,” Seth MacFarlane’s got you covered.

In season 3 of “The Cleveland Show,” MacFarlane and his writers used that year’s holiday episode, “Die Semi-Hard,” to send up the Yuletide action classic. While working in a nativity scene, Cleveland regales his family with a retelling of “Die Hard” in which he plays John MacLane, his wife Donna plays Holly, and so on. When Cleveland works in Cleveland Jr. as Al Powell, he has his son question Hayden’s character as “Guy Who Looks Like Huey Lewis.” In this version, we get to hear the actual voice of Lewis, who delivers the line, “No, no one’s here at all.”

At long last, Huey Lewis became a quasi-part of the “Die Hard” universe. And if you’re now wondering where the heck the singer of such Billboard hits as “Heart and Soul,” “I Want a New Drug,” and “The Power of Love” has actually shown up onscreen, I regret to inform you that it’s not all great news.

Interestingly, not appearing in “Die Hard” didn’t do much to help or hinder Huey Lewis’ career. Recording-wise, Huey Lewis and the News’ popularity gradually faded after the remarkably high highs of the LPs “Sports” (seven-times platinum) and “Fore!” (three-times platinum). Their 1988 album “Small World” went platinum, while their 1991 release “Hard at Play” went gold, but these proved to be the end of their certified successes. It’s possible Lewis’ most culturally relevant moment over the last few decades can be found in Mary Harron’s “American Psycho” (which Lewis has reportedly never seen).

One reason people were led to believe that Lewis played Eddie in “Die Hard” is because the man had been a willing actor for years in his band’s music videos, and made uncredited appearances in films like “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” and “Back to the Future.” So, it was hardly a surprise when he gave a terrific little performance in Robert Altman’s 1993 classic “Short Cuts,” and was hugely affecting as a karaoke bar regular in Bruce Paltrow’s uneven “Duets.” For many years, acting was little more than a fun side gig for Lewis, but when he sadly lost his ability to sing live in 2018 due to hearing loss from Ménière’s disease, he threw himself into voice acting as a dog named Bullworth in the animated Disney series “Puppy Dog Pals.” For a guy who’s always seemed like a complete mensch, playing a likable mutt was a perfect fit. And while Lewis hasn’t done any acting since appearing on the web series “Boytalk” in 2022, I have to believe there are loads of roles out there for a naturally charismatic fellow like Lewis. Someone hit my man up!